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Full Blooded Italians
The Full Blooded Italians (or F.B.I.) is a professional wrestling stable and tag team that wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the late 1990s and for World Wrestling Entertainment during the mid-2000s. History Extreme Championship Wrestling The original Full Blooded Italians began in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1996 as a comedy stable that put African American wrestler J.T. Smith with Italian wrestler "Big" Val Puccio, eventually adding two wrestlers from the Southern United States, Tracy Smothers and Tommy Rich, and one more Italian, Little Guido. Guido has been involved in every ECW and/or WWE incarnation of the F.B.I. The running gag of the stable was that most of the wrestlers were obviously not of Italian descent, but they often claimed to be and acted in stereotypical Italian-American ways, including none-too-subtle Mafia references and constant hand gestures, and praising famous Italian figures such as Frank Sinatra and Rocky Balboa. During their ECW run, the crowd would regularly chant "Where's my pizza?" at the group. The group would routinely come out to a techno remix of Stayin' Alive and challenge their opponents to dance-offs. The group imploded when Smothers and Rich departed the company, leaving Sal E. Graziano to manage Little Guido on his own. The group became less of a comedy act and more of a serious tandem until Tony Mamaluke was added to the duo in early 2000. Together, managed by Graziano, the group feuded with Mikey Whipwreck & Yoshihiro Tajiri, a team led by The Sinister Minister, over the ECW World Tag Team Championship. The group vied for number one contendership of the title in the company's dying months. World Wrestling Entertainment SmackDown! After a beating at the hands of Rikishi, Little Guido, known as Nunzio at the time, threatened to bring in his "family" to gain revenge. The next week, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny "The Bull" Stamboli joined with Nunzio to reform the Full Blooded Italians and attacked Rikishi. They initially gained little success, but later had brief feuds with a number of notable wrestlers and tag teams, including Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo), Chris Benoit, Rhyno, and the Acolytes Protection Agency (Faarooq and Bradshaw). The F.B.I. was also used by Mr. McMahon to attack The Undertaker and by Jamie Noble (Nunzio's storyline cousin) to attack Rey Mysterio. When the group turned into fan favorites, they grew in popularity, but were disbanded just as they were getting over and Palumbo was sent to the WWE's Raw brand. In November 2004, Palumbo and Stamboli were released. Vito appeared on the August 6, 2005 episode of Velocity by aiding Nunzio with a blackjack to help him win the Cruiserweight Championship from Paul London. Soon after, a profile of Vito in SmackDown! Magazine "officially" referred to the new twosome as "The F.B.I." and Vito and Nunzio continued to appear in the tag team division of SmackDown! until Nunzio left Vito when he discovered he was a cross-dresser. WWE ECW The F.B.I. reunited briefly at the first-ever One Night Stand pay-per-view event in 2005 and again in 2006 when Little Guido, Tracy Smothers, Tony Mamaluke, Big Guido and J.T. Smith appeared together. In 2006, World Wrestling Entertainment launched the ECW brand and Nunzio (once again using the name Little Guido) left the SmackDown! brand and reformed the F.B.I. with Tony Mamaluke, Big Guido, and new member Trinity. After ECW's television debut, Big Guido left the company. Tony Mamaluke was later released from his WWE contract on January 18, 2007. Nu-Wrestling Evolution After their release from WWE, Stamboli and Palumbo formed a tag team version of the F.B.I. in the Italy-based Nu-Wrestling Evolution, using the gimmick to make themselves top fan favorites in the company until they left the promotion in 2006. Jersey All Pro Wrestling On November 15, 2008, Little Guido and Tracy Smothers formed a version of the F.B.I. in Jersey All Pro Wrestling and defeated The Latin American Xchange in their first match to win the Tag Team Championship. Their success did not last long, as the F.B.I. lost the titles to D-N-A (Dixie and Azrieal) on December 13. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling On August 4, 2010, it was confirmed that the F.B.I. would be taking part in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's ECW reunion show, Hardcore Justice, on August 8. At the event Little Guido, Tony Mamaluke (billed as Tony Luke) and Tracy Smothers, accompanied by Sal E. Graziano, defeated Kid Kash, Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger in a six-man tag team match. On the following edition of TNA Impact!, the ECW alumni, known collectively as EV 2.0 and represented by F.B.I. members Guido and Luke, were assaulted by A.J. Styles, Kazarian, Robert Roode, James Storm, Douglas Williams and Matt Morgan of Ric Flair's Fourtune stable, who thought they didn't deserve to be in TNA. The following week TNA president Dixie Carter gave Guido, Luke and the rest of EV 2.0 TNA contracts in order for them to settle their score with Fourtune. On the August 26 edition of Impact! Guido and Luke were squashed by Roode and Storm in a tag team match. The match ended F.B.I.'s association with TNA. Incarnations * First Incarnation ** Promotion: Extreme Championship Wrestling ** Type: Stable ** Active: 1996-2001 ** Members: Salvatore Bellomo, "The Big Don" Tommy Rich, "The Main Man" Tracy Smothers, Little Guido Maritato, Davey Piezono, Mabel, "The Italian Stallion" J.T. Smith, Val Puccio, Sal E. Graziano, Big Guido, Tony Mamaluke, Ulf Herman, One Man Gang * Second Incarnation ** Promotion: World Wrestling Entertainment (SmackDown! brand) ** Type: Stable ** Active: 2003–2004 ** Members: Nunzio, Johnny Stamboli, Chuck Palumbo * Third Incarnation ** Promotion: WWE (SmackDown! brand) ** Type: Tag team ** Active: 2005–2006 ** Members: Nunzio, Vito * Fourth Incarnation ** Promotion Nu-Wrestling Evolution ** Type: Tag team ** Active: 2006 ** Members: Johnny Stamboli, Chuck Palumbo * Fifth Incarnation ** Promotion: WWE (ECW brand) ** Type: Stable ** Active: 2006 ** Members: Little Guido, Trinity, Big Guido, Tony Mamaluke * Sixth Incarnation ** Promotion: JAPW ** Type: Tag Team ** Active: 2008 ** Little Guido, Tracy Smothers In wrestling *'Finishing tag team moves' **Backbreaker hold (Palumbo) / Diving leg drop (Stamboli) combination – WWE *'Finishing triple team moves' **''Kiss of Death'' (Catching hip toss by any members of the F.B.I. followed by a diving double foot stomp by Nunzio) – ECW / WWE *'Signature tag team moves' **''Paisan Elbow'' (Double elbow drop with Tracy Smothers and Little Guido joining hands before dropping the elbows) – ECW *'Entrance themes' **"Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra (ECW) **"That's Amore" by Dean Martin **"Stayin' Alive" by N-Trance **An instrumental variation of the Beastie Boys' No Sleep till Brooklyn by Harry Slash & The Slashtones **An instrumental variation of the Beastie Boys' No Sleep till Brooklyn by Jim Johnston (WWE) Championships and accomplishments *'Extreme Championship Wrestling' **ECW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – Maritato and Smothers (1) and Maritato and Mamaluke (1) *'Jersey All Pro Wrestling' **JAPW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Maritato and Smothers *'World Wrestling Entertainment' **WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2 times) – Nunzio See also *The Mamalukes External links * ECW Stable * WWE Stable * WWE ECW Stable Category:Extreme Championship Wrestling teams and stables Category:Jersey All Pro Wrestling teams and stables Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables Category:Independent promotions teams and stables Category:ECW World Tag Team Champions Category:Teams and stables